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Video: High-stakes gamesmanship keeps Egypt on edge

Closed captioning of: High-stakes gamesmanship keeps Egypt on edge

>>good evening from jordon. the stand off in neighboring egypt that has raised the political bloodressure across the region is showing signs tonight of becoming annen durns contest between
mubarak
and the demonstrators. although calm as the senior leadership in the rules party including
mubarak
's son resigned. it means the younger
mubarak
wildly unpopular with critics will n be taking his dad's place. many suggesting it may be a token offering to try and outlast the protesters who are against him. our correspondent,
richard engel
reporting.

>> reporter: good evening. there is still a lot of mistrust here. serious ne gaucgotiations are still underway to guarantee that power is transferred away from the president and his son. protesters are still camped o here. shouting calls for more democrac and
president mubarak
to leave. the protesters remain nervous, that they will be attacked. today, they resisted when the military tried to remove barricades they set up. th army wants to reopen the square to traffic. for
12 days
, the government has struggled to deal with the protesters. first it fought them with police, water c oxcanons and tear gauze, but the ptests got bigger. then it sent goon squads to attack although the government denies it was responsible. the protesters fought back and showed off the wounded in a
victory parade
. now the government is giving the demonstrators most of what they want. and waiting until others turn on the protesters stagnating the economy. the government is tryin to slow this down by promisi reforms and making some changes to convince the people they can't get what they wan without a full revolution. the president oba's son has been removed from the party. but now it is one of many. president wmubarak has said he will step down in sex monix months and not run again. and establish term limits he has vowed to investite fraud. but the protesters want him to leave the country in exile.
mubarak
president for three decades said he will never go like that. for the first time we are hearing a very different tone. these carpenters and blacksmiths told me they want reform and demoacy, but want to go back to work. hes making changes and leaving in six monthsanyway. our people are suffering the longer the protesters destroy the country. they want evething to change at once
even god
made the world in seven days they wanto do it in one said another. we have to respect the presidency.

>>for the protesters time is the enemy. they have got to keep the media spotlight on themselves and have got to keep the regime's feet to the fire. the longer that things go on the harder it will be to maintain opinion and international internags ternational focus on them.

>> reporter: arab states
are fearing if they goes they will be next. and protests confined to central cair will spread across the
middle east
. egypt's vice president and former intelligence chief is seen by many here as the person most likely to guide this transition to power.

>>and richard, i get the sense tonight, not only were these concessions not welcome, but almost had the opposite effect. are they going t crank it up more.

>> reporter: t protesters in the square are really the
wild card
. many of the die-hards in the square and there are many of them say they will accept nothing less than
president mubarak
leave the country and they are not going to change that demand. they are calling for major demonstrations all week long starting tomorrow. this was supposed to be called the week of resilience.